New Initiatives in Primary-Secondary Education

Fortunately for progressive parents and school managements, a rising number of edupreneurs have developed supplementary and experiential education programmes to enrich school curriculums and develop cognitive skills IF FOUNDATIONAL EARLY childhood care and education in contemporary Indian education is in its infancy due to sustained government neglect, the primary education scenario is not much better, for the same reason. It™s tragic but true that the vast majority of the country™s 1.20 million primary schools established and managed by the Central, state and local governments are in a shambles. Government primaries are characterised by ramshackle buildings with leaking roofs, multi-grade classrooms, and to tend to be bereft of fans, electricity, safe drinking water, useable if any, toilets. Moreover they suffer mass teacher truancy, with typically 90 percent of budgetary outlays absorbed by the remuneration of teachers and staff who often don™t report for work ” 25 percent of the country™s 8 million government school teachers are absent every day. Sustained neglect of primary education is the prime cause of the mass unemployment, low wages and rock-bottom productivity of Indian industry and agriculture. According to the Annual Status of Education Report 2013 of Pratham ” India™s most-respected NGO ” 58.9 percent of class V children in government rural primaries can™t read and comprehend class II texts and 75 percent can™t do simple division sums. The saving grace of K-12 education in post-independence India, are the country™s 80,000 ˜recognised™ private primary-secondaries (200,000 according to the Union HRD ministry which computes the primary, secondary and higher secondary sections of composite schools as separate units) and an estimated 300,000 ˜unrecognised™ (by state governments) private budget schools ” typically privately-promoted slum primaries offering English language learning ” in which the aggregate enrolment adds up to more than 50 percent of India™s primary school-going children. However, even in the great majority of private primary-secondaries, academic standards suffer in comparison with global benchmarks mainly because schools are obliged to follow syllabuses and curriculums of examination boards which prepare students for entry into academically backward government colleges and higher education institutions rarely in sync with the needs of Indian industry, agriculture or the services sector. CONSEQUENTLY THE ONLY option of parents and school managements who want to prepare students for higher education and post-collegiate job markets, is to ensure their children are provided with enriched, value-added supplementary education which improves their thinking, logic and problem-solving skills which will not only help them score well in school board exams but also stand them in good stead in higher education and employment thereafter. Fortunately for such progressive parents and forward-looking school managements, a growing number of edupreneurs have developed and are marketing supplementary and experiential education programmes which enrich school curriculums and develop the cognitive skills of students. A primary-secondary curriculum enrichment and development company which is fast earning a good reputation for providing cognitive skills enhancement programmes is the Hyderabad-based Creya Learning Pvt. Ltd (CL). Promoted in 2011 with the objective of making œlearning relevant for children in the 21st…